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LIBRPRV OF CONGRESS 
020 930 200 7^ 



W/~»lli»-»*~r*»r I r 



ni Congress, 
^d tSessio7i. 



SENATE. 



Document 
No. 176. 



CONDITIONS IN THE UKRAINE RESPECTING TREATMENT 

OF JEWS. 



MESSAGE 



FROM THE 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 

TRANSMI'lTING, 

IN RESPONSE TO A SENATE RESOLUTION OF DECEMBER 20, 
1919, A COMMUNICATION FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE, 
SUBMITTING A REPORT ON THE ACTUAL CONDITION IN THE 
UKRAINE WITH RESPECT TO THE TREATMENT OF MEMBERS OF 
THE JEWISH RACE. 



January 12, 1020. — Read; referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, and 

ordered to be printed. 



To THE Senate: 

I transmit luTowith a rci^ort i'rom the Secretary of State, in response 
to the resohition adopted by the Senate on December 16 (calenchir 
day, December 20), 1919, requesting the State Department to trans- 
mit to the Senate such information as may be availabl(\ not incon- 
sistent with tlie public interest, showins; the actual condition in the 
I'kraine with respect to the treatment of members of the Jewish race. 

WooDRow Wilson. 
The White House, 

12 January, 1920. 



i) 

The President: 

The undersigneil, the Secretary of State, has the honor to lay liefore 
tlie President, with a view to its transmission to the Senate, if liis 
judgment a])])roves thereof, the following report in response to the 
Senate's resolution of Deceml)ei- 10 (calendar day, December 20) 
1919, reading as follows: 

Rcsolreil. That th(^ attention of the Senate ha\ang been called to the re]5ortcd massa- 
cre of members of the .Tewisli race in the Uki'aine and to the existence and e.^ecution 
of poj;roni,s. which indicate a deferniinatioTi to ext(;rminati' the .Te'.vs of Ukrainia, it 
is rccjTiested of the Stale Deinirtment Ihal sach information as may be available, not 
inconsistent with tlie public interest, be transmitted to the Senate showim,' the actual 
conditions in the Ukraine. 



.cr4U4 

2 CONDITION'S IX THE UKKAINE RESPECTING JEWS. I 1 ji. '3 

The most recent first-hand information furnished by an American 
official wliich the Department of State has received on the subject 
matter of the resolution is contained in a report by Brig. Gen. Jadwin, 
United States Army, upon a tour of inspection made by him in the 
Ukraine during the latter part of September last. The pertinent 
part of that report reads as follows: 

The story of the Jews is a serious one. .\ Jewish committee furnished me with a 
statement giving the names of certain towns, dates of pogroms, and number killed 
at each place. The total of this list was 10,712. They also furnished the names of 
other towns and some totals bring the number, September 9, up to 29,000. They 
did not. however, produce exact dates or exact number reported to be killed at each 
town. This was, of course, difficult for them to do as the Government of Kiev had 
changed hands several times and most of their towns were in Petlura territory and 
their information came in liy rather irregular ways. They promised to give these 
dates and exact numbers liut had not produced them up to the time I left Kiev. 

1 ha\-e no good reason for doubting the 10,712 figure and would not be surprised it 
the 29,000 figure was substantially correct. 

IhThey claim that besides these there were doubtless many others killed of whom 
they have no record. Most of those killed are reported to have been done away vnth 
by bands, l)ut information available was to the effect that bands had also killed about 
4.50 Poles, largely landowners and boiu-geoisie. 

When the Russian Army liroke uj), many of the soldiers are said to have taken their 
weapons home and to have secreted them. In the absence of a general stable gov- 
ernment tliroughout the country these weapons are Ijrought otit at times under differ- 
ent leaders. Those especially mentioned include Petlura, Gregeroff, Struck, Zylony, 
and Sokolow. There was nothing to show whether the killings were with the knowl- 
edge or connivance of these leaders or had been done independently by some men 
who at other times were in their bands. Proof was not fturnished that the actions 
were concerted or that any one man was responsible for a large number of the deaths. 
There were many killed during the la.s» spring, but the figures for the past few months 
have been much less. 

An ofiicer of Petlura's army said that when Kiev was taken there were many pris- 
oners sent back to Winuica. On one trainload of prisoners sent back there were six 
Jews who had been bolshevik commissars. WTaen the train an-ived at Winnica and 
the prisoners taken off it was found that the six commissars had been killed by the 
other prisoners. The latter claimed that the commissars led them into their diffi- 
culties. 

There are about 20,000 Jews fi-om other parts of the country now taking refuge in 
Kiev under the protection of Denikin's volunteer army. 

Denikin's officers advised that orders against e.xcesses had been issued from general 
headquarters, also that one major general was relieved from his command because he 
was not considered to \\a.\e exerted suliicieut efforts to prevent a pogrom. Several 
soldiers were sentenced in Kiev fi-om 10 to ia years' hard labor for attempting to steal 
from Jews. .Vt Lozonia some officers and soldiers have been arrested and are to be 
tried for alleged participation in excesses. 

One pogroin happened while we were at Kiev. The Jews alleged that a large num- 
ber were slaughtered at Fastow. I saw several Russian officers who stated that at the 
time in (juestion. which was dimng the big bolshevik attack on Kiev, the brigade com- 
mander stationed at Fastow had sent all his troops except his personal staff, personal 
guard, and train crew out of Fastow to the front. While in this situation the train was 
suddenly surrounded l)y a number of townspeople, among whom many Jews were 
recognized. They w-ere armed with pitchforks, axes, etc. An attempt was made on 
the lite of the engineer of the train, but the brigade commander succeeded in getting 
the train under way and joined his forces on the front. The town was in the hands of 
the bolshe\iks for one day. It was the scene othea\^- fighting for four days, in the 
course of whi'h some 400 are understood to ha\e been killed. I noticed in driving 
throuu'h the I iwn of Fastow that many houses had crosses on them and on inquiry 
was told thai these crosses indicated the residences of Christians. 

At the invitation of Lieut. Gen. Bredow 1 attended a review of part of his troops on 
a Sunday following my arrival in Kiev. The metropolite of Kiev, Anthony, who is 
the head of the Russian Church for Southern Russia, and who had been removed by 
Petlura and confined in prison in I'kraine and Poland for some six months, had just 
returned to Kiev. In connection with the review the metropolite blessed the troops, 
a most iinprq|sive ceremony. The religious piety of the young men was marked and 
very impressive. 

p; ot >». 

JAM 28""l92a 



CONDITIONS IN THE UKBAINE RESPECTING JEWS. 3 

Having had experience witli the entry of the Polisli troops into Minsk where I had 
seen the good effect of a proclamation to the civilian population by Mr. Morgenthau, 
and of a pastoral letter to the people and soldiers by the Roman Catholic bishop of 
Minsk. I called on the nietropolite, talked the Jewish situation over with him, and 
requested him to issue an encyclical letter to all his flocks enjoining restraint from any 
attempts on the lives of Jews. The metropolite felt that much of the trouble for the 
Jews resulted partly from their own actions and teachings and stressed some teachings 
of the Old Testament and other Jewish writings as to the relations of the Jews with 
other peoples, teachings which are at marked variance with the enlightened ideas of 
to-day. He, however, referred with pride to a sermon on the subject of the Jews 
which he had preached in 1903 while bishop of Zytomii-, and wliich was translated 
into English, French, and German. He promised that he would issue an encyclical 
letter which would be sent to all the liishops, priests, and congregations in southern 
Russia. 

The Jews felt that the attacks have been made upon them because they have lieen 
confused with the bolsheviks. They deny that as a rule more than a proportional 
percentage of the bolsheviks were Jews. A few of them, however, admit that there 
may be a higher percentage of Jews among the bolsheviks than their proportional 
percentage, but say that this was because bolshevism had a stronger hold in towns 
than in the country, and almost all the Jews lived in the towns. They also say that 
many Jews who became bolsheviks renounced Judaism and claim that they are 
internationalists or communists and not Jews. 

The fact that Trotsky. Bela Kun, and many of the other prominent men are Jews, 
together with the fact that the Russians ha^e not lieen accustomed to seeing many 
Jews in authority, fiurdshed a basis for a propaganda to connect the Jews more closely 
with bolshevism than they should be. 

There was one rumor to the effect tliat there is an organization working among 
the Cossacks who are understood to have disliked the Jews for many years; that the 
oliject of the order is to stir the Cossacks up against former army officers, the bourgeoisie 
and the Jews. 

The situation o' tlie Jews is evidently precarious but will natiually improve greatly 
when order is estalilished, the population' disarmed, a gendarmerie established, the 
land question improved, and education becomes more general. 

Iti may bo of interest to the Senate to know that the Department 
of State has recently made a decided eli'ort to obtain fm-ther and 
more recent first-hand information. Witli tliis in view it has sent 
Mr. Evan E. Yoimg, an experienced consid general in the Consular 
Service, to Odessa, and has obtained from the Navy the services of 
Rear Admiral McCully, who has had a long experience of Russian 
afi'airs and is conversant with the Russian language. Admiral 
McCully has been designated as special agent of the Department of 
State and instructed to proceed to the south of Russia for general 
purposes of observation. Both he and Mr. Young are now en route; 
but it is feared that the recent military advances of the bolsheviki 
may prevent their penetrating into the Ukraine. 

The situation in the Ukraine, especially with respect to the con- 
dition of the Jews there, is receiving the constant attention of the 
Department of State, whose intention it is to do everything prac- 
ticable to keep in touch with developments in that quarter. 

RespectfuHv submitted. 

Robert Lansing. 

Department of State, 

Washington, January 7, 1920. 

o 



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